Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:16:05.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rapa Nui ways of speaking Spanish: Language shift and socialization on Easter Island

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2005

MIKI MAKIHARA
MIKI MAKIHARA
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11367, miki_makihara@qc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines evolving linguistic practices in the Spanish-Rapa Nui (Polynesian) bilingual community of Easter Island, Chile, and in particular the transformation of Rapa Nui Spanish speech styles. The island's rapid integration into the national and world economy and a vibrant indigenous movement have profoundly influenced the everyday lives of island residents. Although community-wide language shift toward Spanish has been evident over the past four decades, the Rapa Nui have in this period also expanded their speech style repertoire by creating Rapa Nui Spanish and syncretic Rapa Nui speech styles. Predominantly Spanish-speaking Rapa Nui children who have imperfect command over Rapa Nui are today adopting a new Rapa Nui Spanish style. Ethnographic and linguistic analysis of recorded face-to-face verbal interactions are utilized to analyze the development, structure, and social significance of Rapa Nui Spanish varieties and to locate them within the complex process of language shift.I wish to express my appreciation to the Rapa Nui and other residents of Easter Island for so kindly welcoming me into their homes and allowing me to participate in their daily life. I would also like to thank my research assistant, Ivonne Calderón Haoa, who helped me record and transcribe speech events. This article is based on field research supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. SBR-9313658), the Wenner-Gren Foundation (Grant No. 5670), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Yale University, and the Institute for Intercultural Studies. Parts of this article were presented at the 2004 meeting of the Linguistic Society of America and the 2004 meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. I thank those who offered comments on earlier versions, in particular two anonymous reviewers, Jane Hill, Robert and Nancy Weber, Christine Jourdan, Niko Besnier, Jean Mitchell, and Lamont Lindstrom.

Keywords

Language shiftlanguage socializationbilingualismlanguage variationethnic identitycommunicative stylePolynesia
Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 34 , Issue 5 , November 2005 , pp. 727 - 762
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alvarez Cáccamo, Celso (1998). From ‘switching code’ to ‘code-switching’: Towards a reconceptualisation of communicative codes. In Peter Auer (ed.), Code-switching in conversation: Language, interaction and identity, 29–48. New York: Routledge.
Anzaldúa, Gloria (1987). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays by M.M. Bakhtin. Trans. Caryl Emerson & Michael Holquist, ed. Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bateson, Gregory (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind: Collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution and epistemology. San Francisco: Chandler.
Bauman, Richard (1977). Verbal art as performance. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Biggs, Bruce (1971). The languages of Polynesia. In Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.), Current trends in linguistics, 8: 466–505. The Hague: Mouton.
Bloomfield, Leonald (1935). Language. London: Allen & Unwin.
Brenzinger, Matthias (1992) (ed.). Language death: Factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Broschart, Jürgen (1997). Why Tongan does it differently: Categorial distinctions in a language without nouns and verbs. Linguistic Typology 1:123–65.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, & Hall, Kira (2004). Language and identity. In Alessandro Duranti (ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology, 369–94. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Consejo de Jefes de Rapanui, & Hotus, Alberto (1988). Te mau hatu 'o Rapa Nui: Los soberanos de Rapa Nui; Pasado, presente y futuro. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Emisión; Centro de Estudios Políticos Latinoamericanos Simón Bolívar.
DeGraff, Michel (1999). Creolization, language change, and language acquisition: An epilogue. In Michel DeGraff (ed.), Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony and development, 473–543. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dorian, Nancy C. (1981). Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRef
Dorian, Nancy C. (1989) (ed.). Investigating obsolescence: Studies in language contraction and death. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dressler, Wolfgang U. (1981). Language shift and language death—A protean challenge for the linguist. Folia Linguistica 15:5–27.Google Scholar
Duranti, Alessandro, & Goodwin, Charles (1992). Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Eckert, Penelope, & McConnell-Ginet, Sally (1992). Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology 21:461–90.Google Scholar
Errington, Joseph (1998). Shifting languages: Interaction and identity in Javanese Indonesia. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Ervin-Tripp, Susan (1972). On sociolinguistic rules: Alternation and co-occurrence. In John J. Gumperz & Dell Hymes (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication, 213–50. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Escobar, Anna María (2000). Contacto social y lingüístico: El español en contacto con el quechua en el Peru. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial.
Gal, Susan (1979). Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. New York: Academic Press.
Gal, Susan (1987). Codeswitching and consciousness in the European periphery. American Ethnologist 14:637–53.Google Scholar
Gal, Susan (1989). Lexical innovation and loss: The use and value of restricted Hungarian. In Dorian, 313–31.CrossRef
Gardner-Chloros, Penelope (1995). Code-switching in community, regional and national repertoires: The myth of the discreteness of linguistic systems. In Lesley Milroy & Pieter Muysken (eds.), One speaker, two languages: Cross-disciplinary perspectives on code-switching, 68–89. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Garrett, Paul B., & Baquedano-López, Patricia (2002). Language socialization: Reproduction and continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology 31:339–61.Google Scholar
Garzon, Susan (1998). Indigenous groups and their language contact relations. In Susan Garzon et al. (eds.), The life of our language, 9–43. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Goffman, Erving (1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Goffman, Erving (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Gómez Macker, Luis (1982). El bilingüismo en Isla de Pascua. Signos 14(19):91–99.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Gutierrez, Manuel J. (1995). On the future of the future tense in the Spanish of the Southwest. In Carmen Silva-Corvalán (ed.), Spanish in four continents: Studies in language contact and bilingualism, 214–26. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Hakuta, Kenji, & Diaz, Rafael M. (1985). The relationship between degree of bilingualism and cognitive ability: A critical discussion and some new longitudinal data. In Keith E. Nelson (ed.), Children's language, 5: 319–44. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hamers, Josiane F., & Blanc, Michel (2000). Bilinguality and bilingualism. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Haugen, Einar (1956). Bilingualism in the Americas: A bibliography and research guide. Montgomery: University of Alabama Press.
Hill, Jane H. (1985). The grammar of consciousness and the consciousness of grammar. American Ethnologist 12:725–37.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. (1989). The social functions of relativization in obsolescent and non-obsolescent languages. In Dorian, 149–64.
Hill, Jane H.., & Hill, Kenneth C. (1986). Speaking Mexicano: Dynamics of syncretic language in central Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Hinton, Leanne (1994). Flutes of fire: Essays on California Indian languages. Berkeley: Heyday.
Hymes, Dell (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J. Holmes (eds.), Sociolinguistics, 269–93. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Hymes, Dell (1974a). Linguistic theory and functions in speech. In his Foundations in sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach, 145–78. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hymes, Dell (1974b). Ways of speaking. In Richard Bauman & Joel Sherzer (eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, 433–51. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Irvine, Judith (2001). “Style” as distinctiveness: The culture and ideology of linguistic differentiation. In Penelope Eckert & John R. Rickford (eds.), Style and sociolingusitic variation, 21–43. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Irvine, Judith, & Gal, Susan (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Paul V. Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities, 35–84.
Kegl, J. A.; Senghas, Ann; & Coppola, M. (1999). Creation through contact: Sign language emergence and sign language change in Nicaragua. In Michel DeGraff (ed.), Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony, and development, 179–237. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kerswill, Paul, & Williams, Ann (2000). Creating a New Town Koine: Children and language change in Milton Keynes. Language in Society 29:65–115.Google Scholar
Kulick, Don (1992). Language shift and cultural reproduction: Socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Labov, William (1972). The study of language in its social context. In Pier Paolo Giglioli (ed.), Language and social context, 283–307. New York: Penguin.
Le Page, Robert B., & Tabouret-Keller, Andrée (1985). Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Long, Michael (1990). Maturational constraints on language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 12: 251–85.Google Scholar
Lutz, Catherine, & Abu-Lughod, Lila (1990) (eds.). Language and the politics of emotion. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Maandi, Katrin (1989). Estonian among immigrants in Sweden. In Dorian, 227–41.CrossRef
Macnamara, John (1967). The bilingual's linguistic performance: A psychological overview. Journal of Social Issues 23:59–77.Google Scholar
Makihara, Miki (2001). Modern Rapanui adaptation of Spanish elements. Oceanic Linguistics 40:191–222.Google Scholar
Makihara, Miki (2004). Linguistic syncretism and language ideologies: Transforming sociolinguistic hierarchy on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). American Anthropologist 106:529–40.Google Scholar
Makihara, Miki (2005). Being Rapa Nui, speaking Spanish: Children's voices on Easter Island. Anthropological Theory 5(2):117–34.Google Scholar
McCall, Grant (1980). Rapanui: Tradition and survival on Easter Island. 2nd ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Meeuwis, Michael, & Blommaert, Jan (1998). A monolectal view of code-switching: Layered code-switching among Zairians in Belgium. In Peter Auer (ed.), Code-switching in conversation: Language, interaction and identity, 76–98. New York: Routledge.
Mougeon, Raymond, & Beniak, Edouard (1989). Language contraction and linguistic change: The case of Welland French. In Dorian, 287–312.CrossRef
Muysken, Pieter (2000). Bilingual speech: A typology of code-mixing. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Myers-Scotton, Carol (1988). Code switching as indexical of social negotiations. In Monica Heller (ed.), Codeswitching: Anthropological and sociolinguistic perspectives, 151–86. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Myers-Scotton, Carol (1998). A way to dusty death: The Matrix Language Turnover hypothesis. In Lenore A. Grenoble & Lindsay J. Whaley (eds.), Endangered languages, 289–316. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Myers-Scotton, Carol (2002). Contact linguistics: Bilingual encounters and grammatical outcomes. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRef
Ochs, Elinor, & Schieffelin, Bambi B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In Richard A. Shweder & Robert A. Le Vine (eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion, 276–320. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ochs, Elinor (1995). The impact of language socialization on grammatical development. In Paul Fletcher & Brian MacWhinney (eds.), The handbook of child language, 73–94. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Poplack, Shana (1980). Sometimes I'll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español: Toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics 18:581–618.Google Scholar
Porteous, J. Douglas (1981). The modernization of Easter Island. Victoria, BC: Department of Geography, University of Victoria.
Prince, Ellen (1987). Sarah Goby, Yiddish folksinger: A case study of dialect shift. Sociology of Jewish languages. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 67:83–116.Google Scholar
Rabanales, Ambrosio (1992). El Español de Chile: Situación actual. In César Hernández Alonso (ed.), Historia y presente del español de América, 565–92. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León.
Rona, José P. (1967). Geografía y morfología del “voseo”. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Pontífica Universidade Católica do Río Grande do Sul.
Schilling-Estes, Natalie (1997). Accommodation versus concentration: Dialect death in two post-insular island communities. American Speech 72:12–32.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Annette (1985). Young people's Dyirbal: An example of language death from Australia. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sherzer, Joel (1987). A discourse-centered approach to language and culture. American Anthropologist 89:295–309.Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, Carmen (1994). Language contact and change: Spanish in Los Angeles. New York: Oxford University Press.
Silva-Corvalán, Carmen, & Terrell, Tracy David (1989). Notas sobre la expresión de futuridad en el español del Caribe. Hispanic Linguistics 2:191–208.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (1981). The limits of awareness. Albuquerque: Southwestern Educational Development Laboratory.
Slobin, Dan (1977). Language change in childhood and history. In John Macnamara (ed.), Language learning and thought, 185–214. New York: Academic Press.
Swigart, Leigh (1992). Two codes or one? The insiders' view and the description of codeswitching in Dakar. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 13:83–102.Google Scholar
Tchekoff, Claude (1984). Une langue sans opposition verbo-nominale: Le Tongien. Modèles Linguistiques 6:125–32.Google Scholar
Thiesen de Weber, Nancy, & Weber, Roberto (1998). Diagnóstico lingüistíco de los educandos de kinder a séptimo año básico de la escuela “Lorenzo Baeza Vega” de Isla de Pascua, al final del año escolar 1997: Informe y recomendaciones. Programa Lengua Rapa Nui.
Thomas, George (1991). Linguistic purism. New York: Longman.
Thomason, Sarah G. (2001). Language contact: An introduction. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Thomason, Sarah G., & Kaufman, Terrence (1988). Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Timm, Lenora A. (2003). Breton at a crossroads: Looking back, moving forward. E-Keltoi 2:25–62.Google Scholar
Torrejón, Alfredo (1991). Formulas de tratamiento de segunda persona singular en el español de chile. Hispania 74:1068–76.Google Scholar
Waterhouse, Viola (1949). Learning a second language first. International Journal of American Linguistics 15:106–9.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel (1953). Languages in contact: Findings and problems. The Hague: Mouton.
Woolard, Kathryn A. (1989). Double talk: Bilingualism and the politics of ethnicity in Catalonia. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Woolard, Kathryn A. (1998). Simultaneity and bivalency as strategies in bilingualism. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8:3–29.Google Scholar
Zentella, Ana Celia (1997). Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York. Malden, MA: Blackwell.